Original, unique and highly entertaining....
Last year’s “Rewind” by Catherine Ryan Howard was a five star read for me ticking all the boxes of a tense thriller, so I was very much looking forward to starting her latest novel “The Nothing Man”. With an intriguing title and a blurb to set the pulse racing before even opening the pages, I couldn’t wait to get started on what sounded like a unique and thrilling read.
“I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man. Now I am the woman who is going to catch him... Two Stories. One Killer. No Mercy”
Set in Cork, Ireland where the author is from, this part fiction, part fictionalised true crime, read like a realistic true crime memoir with chapters interspersed with the killer, whom we know from the start is called Jim and his thoughts and reactions as he reads the book written about himself. Eve Black is the author, the lone survivor of his worst and final attack and she is determined that by writing about ‘The Nothing Man’ (dubbed because the Gardai had ‘nothing’ to identify him) that she will finally uncover who he is and bring him to justice.
A couple of things near the end just had me doubting the integrity of the story a little, hence a dropped star but this cat and mouse thriller entertained me from start to finish with a unique layout and storytelling. I found the whole story easy to follow and understand, especially with everything explained in the true crime parts. In the early pages, I was quite freaked out with the killer creeping up the stairs while his victims slept and felt Catherine did an extra job in drawing me into the dark and atmospheric scenes.
All in all a story I really did enjoy and I’d happily recommend “The Nothing Man” to fiction and non fictions crime readers young and old. I expect it to do really well with readers who are maybe looking for just that something different from the usual run of the mill serial killer thrillers.
4 stars
“I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man. Now I am the woman who is going to catch him... Two Stories. One Killer. No Mercy”
Set in Cork, Ireland where the author is from, this part fiction, part fictionalised true crime, read like a realistic true crime memoir with chapters interspersed with the killer, whom we know from the start is called Jim and his thoughts and reactions as he reads the book written about himself. Eve Black is the author, the lone survivor of his worst and final attack and she is determined that by writing about ‘The Nothing Man’ (dubbed because the Gardai had ‘nothing’ to identify him) that she will finally uncover who he is and bring him to justice.
A couple of things near the end just had me doubting the integrity of the story a little, hence a dropped star but this cat and mouse thriller entertained me from start to finish with a unique layout and storytelling. I found the whole story easy to follow and understand, especially with everything explained in the true crime parts. In the early pages, I was quite freaked out with the killer creeping up the stairs while his victims slept and felt Catherine did an extra job in drawing me into the dark and atmospheric scenes.
All in all a story I really did enjoy and I’d happily recommend “The Nothing Man” to fiction and non fictions crime readers young and old. I expect it to do really well with readers who are maybe looking for just that something different from the usual run of the mill serial killer thrillers.
4 stars